Both state and federal leaders have targeted the H-1B visa program over the last several months in an effort to reduce the huge amounts of fraud and abuse recently discovered in the program—but it looks like local Democrats aren’t on board with those efforts.
According to reports from The Texan, Harris County has authorized $50,000 of taxpayer funds to cover legal fees for Harris County employees seeking H-1B visas and green cards.
This is despite Governor Abbott recently ordering Texas state agencies and colleges to halt their usage of the federal H-1B visa program. Jared Woodfill with Conservative Republicans of Texas called this out, saying: “You really shouldn’t be surprised given the progressive Democrat makeup of Commissioners Court. They usually do the opposite of what’s considered common sense.”
He went on to say that Harris County shouldn’t even be hiring foreigners in the first place. “It’s ridiculous to say that you need to bring someone in from outside the country—or even outside the state—to take these jobs,” Woodfill said.
Woodfill says there isn’t any job in county government that a Texan—or an American—couldn’t do. On the off chance that there is, he argues, county resources should be invested into training Americans to do them rather than importing foreign labor.